Primary Valor by Jack Mars (booksvooks TXT) 📗

Luke didn’t want to understand it.He wanted to kill it.

“Who owns the building?” Ed said.

Trudy paused. “Richard DavisSpence, a forty-nine-year-old who lives in Atlanta, appears to be the owner. Hehides that ownership behind multiple shell companies based in Bermuda andAruba. The building is three years behind on its property tax payments. Spencehas a long history of court cases and criminal charges for wire fraud,impersonating various people, credit card fraud, and the like. He has neverdone significant jail time. He was brought into custody by the Atlanta PD thismorning. His house was raided, and his phones, computers, and cars were seized.He was taken by surprise and offered no resistance. He was questioned with alawyer present. So far, he claims to know nothing about the warehouse or whatwent on there. He was booked on suspicion of kidnapping, capital murder, andaccessory to capital murder. That’s for starters. He’ll see the judge tomorrowmorning.”

“I hope they give him bail and hegets out,” Ed said. “Keep me posted about that.”

“Next,” Don said, quashing thatkind of talk instantly.

Trudy went on. “We’ve beenfollowing up on the names and aliases that Louis Clare gave you. So far we’vegot exactly one hit, but it’s a good one. The Bureau shared with us thevideotape taken from Pistol Pete’s. The man he rented the van to appears toresemble a certain Felix Ramirez Cienfuegos. He is thirty-eight years old. Hehas a long list of aliases, and his nickname is a Hundred Fires, which is whatthe last name means in Spanish. He’s originally a Honduran national from theruling class, but has kept an address in Miami for at least ten years. Hisgreat-grandparents on his mother’s side were Spanish nobility. He was educatedat private schools in Spain, then joined the Honduran Special Forces, a unitnotorious for human rights violations against civilians.”

“What else?” Luke said.

“If it’s him, then we might have abetter idea what the deal is here. Cienfuegos is an international high flyer, aborder crosser. The intelligence suggests he has moved contraband of all kinds.Freelance cocaine trafficking until the cartels shut him down. Suspectedkidnapping and human trafficking. Suspected trafficking in stolen antiquities,as well as illegal traffic in poached animal products, like the horns of rhinosand ivory from elephants. It’s thought to be more his thing to capture womenmoving across borders, immigrants from Central America headed north forexample, than to abduct young American girls. But you never know.”

“Whatever pays the bills,” MarkSwann said. It was the first indication that he was even on the call.

“Not random in any event,” Lukesaid.

“No,” Trudy said. “If it isCienfuegos, it was definitely not random. He didn’t accidentally turn up inWilmington, North Carolina, the day of a kidnapping, case a certain girl’s highschool, then coincidentally snatch her during a party later that night. He wassent there to get that specific girl, and he had inside information about herplans ahead of time.”

“Why would a man like Cienfuegoswalk into a rental place, knowing that he might be videotaped?” Ed said. “Especiallyif two men were involved in the kidnapping?”

“One guess is he was the lessconspicuous of the two. Cienfuegos is thought to associate and partner with aman named Camilo Ortiz. Ortiz is a shadowy figure who keeps a low profile. CIAdocumentation suggests he is a Panamanian national with a prominent verticalscar on the left side of his face.”

“Hence the need to stay out ofsight.”

“Yes,” Trudy said. “And whileCienfuegos is fluent in Spanish, English, and Portuguese, Ortiz might be anative Spanish speaker with only limited English.”

“Which one is the boss?” Lukesaid.

“Not enough is known about Ortizto even say. We don’t know how old he is. He’s never been arrested and doesn’tseem to have a passport, at least not under that name. We don’t know how hegets in and out of the country. He may have protection at high levels thatkeeps his identity in the dark.”

“Protection by whom?” Ed said.

“We don’t know that, either.”

“He’s a ghost,” Luke said.

“We don’t know if he even reallyexists. This is all theory. If he does exist, he may go by the nickname ElTigre. It’s Spanish for The Tiger.”

There was a long moment of quiet.

“How did the FBI turn up at thatrental place this morning?” Ed said. He said FBI as if it were the sinisterintelligence agency of a foreign country, and not the organization he himselfworked for.

“The Bureau proper appears to havestarted looking into this case around the same time we did.”

“Why?” Ed said. “Who called themin? They seem to have been tracking us.”

“They say it’s a coincidence.”

“There is no such thing ascoincidence, not when intelligence agencies are involved.”

“Okay,” Don said. “This is where Istep in. The Bureau in its infinite wisdom has decided to take on this case. Ithas all the markings of an interstate human trafficking operation, and they saythat’s what pricked up their ears on it. Personally, I don’t believe that. Weare sweeping the entire building for bugs, right now, as we speak. In themeantime, after a great deal of string pulling, and a certain amount ofnegotiating, and you can read that as begging, we are partnering with thegreater Bureau on this case, and they are giving you a field agent to workwith.”

“Terrific,” Luke said. “A real Gman from Dragnet?”  

“A minder,” Ed said.

“Listen,” Don said. “The Bureauwould like to pull down our shingle and scatter us to the winds. We havefriends in high places ourselves, and we’re being protected for the time being.But don’t kid yourselves. The FBI knows everything. They know you guys weredown there under assumed identities. They know you bent the arm of Louis Clare,and found the bodies in Florence. They’re not even hiding the fact that they’remonitoring us. This room was clean as of noon, but that doesn’t mean diddly. Theycould be listening in some other way. One of us could be feeding theminformation. It doesn’t matter. All that matters is they knew what we weredoing. It’s possible that they let us run because they knew we would turn upleads in a… what would you call it?”

“Informal manner,” Swann said.

“Yes. An informal manner. Youbring a man like Louis Clare into a police